eggs

Emporio De Los Sandwiches is a delightful little bakery right around the corner from Yorkdale Mall that specializes in empanadas and seriously tasty-looking sweet pastries. I went in intending to only get a couple of empanadas, but the desserts were transfixing. I had a hard time narrowing it down to just a couple; they all looked so good.

Don’t ask me what those desserts are, however; nothing was labeled. I asked the woman behind the counter what they were called — she told me and they were extremely Latin sounding. I felt bad asking her to repeat herself or write it down, so that was that.

I’m not exactly Suresh Doss, in case you haven’t figured that out yet.

I know what the empanadas are, at least! So I’m not completely useless. One was beef, and the other was chorizo (even my feeble brain can recall words such as “beef” and “chorizo”).

They were both good, though the beef was clearly the better of the two. The chorizo was a bit dry and underseasoned; it was fine, especially since the quality of the pastry itself was quite good, but it was pretty average.

The beef, on the other hand, had an assertive flavour and a satisfyingly saucy consistency, featuring chunks of eggs and veggies to spice things up (metaphorically — neither empanada was spicy at all).

The desserts were the same story: one great, one not so much.

The round one was seriously delicious; the pastry was fluffy and doughnut-like, and the creamy custard and sweet dulce de leche went perfectly together.

The square one was odd. It basically tasted like a ridiculously fat square of dry, plain pie crust. It was hard and crunchy and barely sweet at all (I think the sugar on top was the only source of sweetness).

It kinda went over my head. I don’t get the appeal. I’m pretty sure the woman behind the counter mentioned a caramel filling, so I’m going to assume that something was missing.

Apparently steak and eggs are a pretty big deal in Latin America; I’ve had a version of this meal for Colombia, Ecuador, and now Uruguay.

The one they’re serving at La Pasiva wound up being almost exactly the same as the one I had at Comedor Popular Ecuatoriano. It’s a relatively simple dish: steak and eggs, a salad, and potatoes (you can choose between potato salad and fries — I went with potato salad).

I liked it even better than the version at Comedor Popular Ecuatoriano. The well done, thinly-cut steak was a little bit tough — but it was still much more tender than Comedor’s version, and the seasoning was nice and zingy.

It’s also a nice reminder of why steak and eggs is a classic dish; they go very well together.

The salad, with its standard vinaigrette, didn’t particularly stand out, but the potato salad was quite delightful. I’m generally not a fan of potato salad, mostly because it almost always features raw onion, and that’s not my favourite flavour (putting it mildly). But La Pasiva’s version was refreshingly onion-free; it was a little bit sweeter than I’d like, but the potatoes were nice and creamy, and it had enough of a vinegary bite to cut the sweetness.

I also tried the pasiva (because you should never leave a restaurant without trying its namesake dish), which consists of two hot dogs wrapped in fatty ham and served with melty cheese on top. It’s served on an enormous pile of fries.

Was it good? I mean, yeah, of course it was good. Did you not read what I just wrote? It’s a hot dog wrapped in ham and covered with gooey cheese. The hot dog had a nice smokey flavour, and the whole thing was quite satisfying.

The fries — which were thinly-cut and were very similar to what you’ll find at McDonald’s — were okay, but they had clearly been sitting out for a while, so they weren’t hot and they were somewhat dried out.

This time, I visited an Ecuadorian restaurant called Comedor Popular Ecuatoriano. I wasn’t sure what to order; the woman behind the counter recommended a dish that came with a hearty soup and churrasco, an Ecuadorian take on steak and eggs.

The soup came out first, and it was really, really good. I didn’t see it on the menu, but I’m pretty sure this was sancocho. I had this particular soup at a restaurant called Mi Tierra, but this one was clearly the superior version. The broth had a really satisfying chicken-infused flavour, with a nice hit of cilantro and a zestiness that kept me coming back for more.

It was also seriously hearty, with huge chunks of cassava, carrots, plantains, beef, and corn. This alone would have been a satisfying lunch.

But of course, there was still the main meal: a huge plate piled high with steak, rice, fries, two fried eggs, and a salad. If you’ve got a big appetite, this is your place.

Oddly, I really enjoyed this even though most of the individual components weren’t all that great. The steak was tough, the fries were run-of-the-mill, and the rice was fairly bland. But once I started eating it all together, it coalesced into something surprisingly tasty. The perfectly runny yolks on the two eggs essentially becomes a sauce that improves everything; if you get a little bit of multiple elements in each mouthful, it’s delicious.

I wasn’t sure which country this would fall under. Parallel’s website describes itself as “Middle-Eastern and Mediterranean,” which doesn’t exactly narrow things down. I ordered shakshuka, and Wikipedia lists Libya first in the list of countries where this dish is served. So sure, Libya it is.

Parallel is a new restaurant from the people behind Ozery Bakery (which sells some good stuff, FYI). They also make and sell their own tahini, which features heavily in most of the dishes on their menu. You can see the very impressive looking machine they use to crush the sesame seeds at the back of the restaurant.

I ordered the hammshuka, which is shakshuka that’s served on a bed of freshly-made hummus.

It was very, very good. The hummus was odd; not surprisingly, the tahini flavour was front-and-centre. The lemon was almost imperceptible, and if there was any garlic at all, I couldn’t taste it. It was subtle and unlike any hummus I’ve ever had, but it grew on me.

Better was the shakshuka (which, for the initiated, is a dish in which eggs are baked in a thick tomato sauce). It had a rich, garlicky flavour, and the eggs were cooked perfectly. It was topped with a very liberal amount of good-quality extra virgin olive oil — enough to give the dish EVOO’s distinctive nutty flavour.

I ordered it with roasted eggplant (other add-ons include goat cheese and roasted peppers), which turned out to be a wise choice. The eggplant was smoky and amazing, and complimented the shakshuka perfectly.

I really like egg tarts — in theory. They’re actually a lot like millefeuille, in that they should be amazing but very rarely are thanks to the ravages of time. That crispy, flaky crust? Maybe I’ve just been exceedingly unlucky in a lifetime of eating egg tarts, but I don’t think I’ve ever had one where the crust wasn’t soggy to a certain extent.

I wanted the one from Nova to be different, but right on the first bite — when I struggled to get my teeth through the once-crispy, now-chewy crust — I knew it was game over.

Still, the custardy filling was satisfying enough to make this worth eating regardless. Amazingly creamy, dense but not too dense, and with a mild lemony zip to cut through the richness, it was probably one of the better egg tarts I’ve had.

I’d be more upset about the sodden crust, but since I’ve literally never had one of these things where the crust was perfect, I’m just going to assume that’s a pipe dream. I’d either have to go to a bakery where they sell so many egg tarts that they’re constantly pumping out new ones (i.e. fly to Portugal), or I’d have to camp outside of a bakery and grab one the minute they open.

I don’t think either option is going to happen any time soon, so soggy crust it is.

You’d think a place called “Jay’s Sandwiches of the World” would be a treasure trove for a blog like this, but I guess I’ve been at it a bit too long — I’ve already covered pretty much all of the countries that have been sandwichified by this restaurant (places like Italy, Cuba, and South Korea).

There was one sandwich, however, that was fair game: the lomito. Depending on who you ask, it’s either a Chilean or Argentinian specialty (Uruguay serves it as well). The version served in Chile is typically made with pork, and Argentina’s version more commonly with beef (not surprising, given Argentina’s love of that particular meat).

Well, Jay serves beef, so Argentina it is.

This particular version is a steak sandwich with melty mozzarella, a fried egg, lettuce, tomato, and lomito sauce.

It’s apparently a beloved dish, so I’m going to assume that something went wrong in the translation — this one, at least, wasn’t particularly good. There’s just not much to it; nothing stands out.

The steak, though nice and tender, is surprisingly flavourless. The fried egg was overcooked, with a chalky yolk and rubbery white. And though it’s hard to go wrong with melty cheese in a sandwich, the plasticky goo here makes me want to reconsider that.

As for the “lomito sauce,” I’m pretty sure it was just ketchup, mustard, and mayo. The fresh, crusty-but-not-too-crusty bread was quite good, at least.

I guess it sounds like the sandwich was horrible? It wasn’t horrible. It wasn’t particularly good, mind you, but I ate the whole thing, and if you put another one in front of me, I’d probably eat it again.

I know, “it was food and I ate it” isn’t exactly a ringing endorsement. I’ll just assume that the other sandwiches at this place are better, though it’s exceptionally unlikely that I’ll ever be back to find out.

I can’t say I know too much about Austria, though they did give the world the gift of Arnold Schwarzenegger — so clearly, it’s a country worth knowing about.

The obvious order at The Musket is probably the schnitzel, but I decided to go a bit off the beaten path, and ordered the leberkase (without particularly knowing what it even was).

This turned out not be a particularly adventurous choice — leberkase is a mix of corned beef, pork, bacon and onions, which is ground into a fine paste and baked in a pan. It resembled, more than anything else, a really big, flattened Vienna Sausage patty. Served with a perfectly cooked fried egg on top and with a side of home fries, it was more classic comfort food than adventurous eating.

I quite enjoyed it, but then Vienna Sausage and eggs was a staple when I was growing up, so it definitely brought back some warm, fuzzy childhood memories. The fried egg compliments the salty leberkase quite well, and the home fries help round things out (I question their Austrian authenticity, but hey, if it works it works).